> Isn't it funny how intensely dreams can affect your feelings toward reality? I dreamed once that my dad died... actually he hadn't died yet, but he was going off to war (what war? and he couldn't fight in a war anyway because he's got a fused hip from arthritis, but never mind that), and my mom and I were saying goodbye to him and we knew, absolutely knew, that he was going to die and we would never see him again. And I cried so hard in the dream that when I woke up I had that shaky, drained feeling as if I'd been really crying, and I couldn't wait to see my dad that day. Gave him a huge hug when I did see him.
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Yeah, I know what you mean (although I haven't had quite the same depth of feeling that your dream obviously provoked). The other day I had a very odd dream just before I woke up. Can't remember what it was just now...probably a lot less weird than the one where a gang was going to mutilate one of my friends...but when I woke up I had the oddest feeling that I was still in the dream. It took me a good ten minutes to get back to reality. Freaky.

> One of my other pet theories is that when I wake up feeling absolutely horrible (not sick in any way, just miserable), or when suddenly one day I'm looking at one of my friends differently, or have weird feelings attached to them that I can't connect with any recent thought or event, it's because of a dream that I can't remember.
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My trademark is dreaming about a particular location and then suddenly seeing it, maybe years later, and remembering everything about it. It's only happened twice (maybe not so much of a trademark, then) but when it did I was *so sure* that I'd seen the places before. Dreams can be odd like that.

The other weird thing that sometimes happens is when my brain doesn't tell me about something that's happening until after I have reacted. Before now, when my alarm clock has gone off, the last remnants of my dream quickly changed into something like the beeper on the cooker going off, and then I actually heard the alarm. Even when I'm awake, when I hear a sudden loud noise I jolt slightly and then hear it. I can't trust my brain to tell me what's happening...how weird is that?

Phil-"That'll be the ultimate conspiracy theory...against *your own brain*"-bee